Sakura's Death bed
by Latice-And-Ribbon
Summary: Skin and bones, Sakura clings to life as a captive of the Akatsuki. Short story which I wrote a few months ago.


**Something I quickly wrote up a few months ago. I don't care if you hate it, or like it, but its probably one of the only things I'll ever post it. Though I enjoy writing, I don't often post what I write.**

Sakura woke up screaming, again. Though Sakura didn't know what was worse… The nightmares or the cold, hard reality she woke up to every morning. But was it even morning? She didn't know. How could you, when you've been sealed in a cave, fed once every ten days if you're lucky.

Sakura lay back, and pulled up the rags that barely clung together to form a shirt. She traced a finger over her concave stomach, and glared at her ghostly glowing skin in the darkness. From lack of the sun, she was a sickly pale colour. She moved her finger up, and slowly drew it over her protruding ribs. She could easily count them.

Her skin was a tight bag around her body, stripped of any fat her lean kunoichi body had. She hadn't had much, as it was. Less than the average, because of her constant dieting. She had been pretty underweight.

Just an effort to impress.

A failed one at that.

Her bones were fragile, and in the dark, that wasn't good. Sakura had come to rely on touch to get her way around. In the dark, she had no other choice. Smashing into a wall too hard would break her fragile bones.

Her hair was rusty and thin, nothing like the glamorous wave of silky pink beforehand. It was more of a grey.

Her teeth had long since become discoloured, and her gums had turned a bright red. Scurvy. From no fruit of vegetables. Her menu was pathetic, consisting of anything canned that her captors had leftover.

Her cheeks were hollowed in, her face saggy. She no longer looked sixteen. She looked sixty, her bones protruding from her face, her eyes sunken in. Her eye-lids swollen and puffy all the time from crying.

Her skin clinging to her bones.

Come to think of it, was she even sixteen? She had tried to keep track of the days, failing. How many had since ticked away?

And every day, she lay where she was, on a piece of wood with a ripped Akatsuki cloak as the only cushion, willing Naruto not to take the bait. Not to rush in, and try for revenge.

Oh, she had had no doubt at first that he could do it. But part of her just… didn't believe in him. Didn't think he could manage to pull off the rescue. And that tiny little piece grew and grew, consuming the part of Sakura that whispered that her friend could do it. That black void that sucked in a little bit of her hope every day…

Though no search parties had been sent out, or so it seemed. But like with the time, how would she know? What she should have said was no search parties had reached her.

Though those probably stopped a long time ago.

Though Naruto may have stopped searching for her. Or had been ordered to stop.

Sakura knew that her life would last as long as the Akatsuki held onto the small hope that Naruto would come searching for her. Though like her own hope, it was probably being eaten away at, bit by bit, ticking her life away.

She knew that she had almost fulfilled her purpose here. They had already tortured the information out of her. She raised a hand to her cheek, remembering all the stinging slaps she had received.

_'Now tell me, Miss Sakura-chan… How many Chuunin and Jounin are stationed as your village guards? You trained under the hokage, so don't deny knowing this…'_

_'I'll never betray the leaf! Forget it!'_

_'Hidan… Go ahead…'_

And then she screamed.

Screaming was now a part of daily routine. How else was she supposed to stay rational? Though screaming sounds crazy, she would be long gone into the pit of insanity without it, the memories crushing her brain.

The screaming was the alarm clock.

How she woke up from the terrible memories that towered over her and threatened to smash down.

_'Are you sure, Leader-sama? The bitch's face is already smashed up.'_

_'Yes, Hidan. Follow my orders.'_

Inner Sakura barely ever spoke anymore. The only times was when she was reminding Sakura to eat, and keep up her strength. Sakura almost didn't listen anymore.

As she said, her hope had long since been munched away. She giggled. No more hope for her. That was funny. The delicate floorboards that held up the sane Sakura were giving way.

**CHA! WAKE UP, SAKURA! **

Sakura's brain shook from the force of the punch from Inner Sakura. Oh well, her days were almost up. Any day now, one of her captors would come in, and end it all.

And she would welcome it.


End file.
